"I think it does."
"He asked me to take over three months ago and we've been moving toward that transition since."
That explained why Carlo made so many extra trips to Sicily in the past months. "You didn't think I deserved to knowthenthat you were going to move us to Europe?"
"I am telling you now."
"Why?"
"Don't be dense."
"I'm not being dense. I want to know why you didn't even talk to me before making that kind of monumental decision for both our lives."
"Why would I?"
And that, in a nutshell, said it all. Her opinions were unimportant. Her dreams were unimportant. Her desires were unimportant. They only mattered when they coincided with his.
Ultimately,shewas unimportant.
She existed to him only as he wanted her to be, only he saw her as some construct he'd created in his own mind, not the woman she was. Could never be. Playing arm candy to a wealthy husband and socialite in training with his family was a role Annette was destined to fail at.
Just like she'd failed at being the kind of daughter her parents had wanted her to be.
She stared up at him, drinking in his gorgeous face, his muscular body, knowing she was likely seeing him for the last time. "You're so arrogant."
"You've said that before," he said with a slashing smile.
"But I'm not finding it charming right now. Your arrogance and selfishness are hurting me, and you don't even care." Could she get through to him?
Could she make him see that she was herself, not some version he'd concocted in his brain and Annette simply could not be anything other thanherself?
"You will get over leaving your job," he said with absolute assurance.
"And leaving my sister? And the rest of my family," she tacked on, though Joyce was the only one Annette would actually miss.
Or who would miss her.
Their older sister had always resented the younger sibling who had been adopted when she was an only child. Their parents didn't even pretend anymore that they saw Annette the same way they did their two biological children.
But then, their reasons for adopting her had not been emotional, or even altruistic.
Carlo frowned. "You knew that one day we would have to move back to Sicily."
"One day in the future, not right now!"
"Now or then? What's the difference?"
She could see why he felt that way. For him, there was no difference. He'd never given any credence to her desire to do certain things with her organization before she left, how committed she was to starting a STEM program and building it into something she could be proud of. Something that would make a difference to children too often overlooked by the very agency created to serve them.
"It's always going to be like this with you, isn't it?" she asked as her heart cracked inside her chest.
"What do you mean?" He was starting to look just a tiny bit worried.
If business moguls ever actually worried about personal stuff, and she was not convinced they did.
"My feelings will always be secondary. The things I want, or need, out of life will always come down the priority list for you, if they make it on there at all."
"You want me. You need me. That is what is important."